Board of Directors
Click the names below to reveal brief bios and contact information for each Practice Greenhealth board member.
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Barbara A. Blakeney, MS, RN
Past President, American Nurses Association
Throughout her career, Barbara Blakeney, past President of the American Nurses' Association, has maintained a passion for providing access to high quality, affordable health care. As a clinician, she focused her practice in poor communities, both urban and rural and from that learned the power of resilience and the oppression of poverty. Barbara is the recipient of many awards and honors including the Pearl McIvor Public Health Nursing Award from the American Nurses’ Association, the Chief Nurse Award of the US Public health Service and the Distinguished Alumni Award at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. As ANA President, Barbara was named one of the 100 most powerful people in health care for 4 successive years. She has served as a member of both the US and International Council of Nurses delegations to the World Health Assembly. Barbara has served on the National Advisory Board for the Joint Commission and as a member of the advisory group for the first nursing sensitive quality indictors for the National Quality Forum. Barbara is a Distinguished Public Policy Fellow of the National Academies of Practice. Barbara has served on many boards of directors including as a founding member of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, the American Nurses Credentialing Center, Health Care Without Harm, Practice Greenhealth, The Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics (CERTS) as well as advisory boards for the Colleges of Nursing at the University of Massachusetts at both Amherst and Boston. As the Innovations Specialist at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Barbara is on the cutting edge of practice, technology and policy.
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Charlotte Brody, RN
National Field Director for Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families
Charlotte Brody joined BlueGreen Alliance as Director of Chemicals, Public Health and Green Chemistry in January 2010. Prior to joining the BlueGreen Alliance, she was the National Field Director for Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, a nationwide effort to pass smart federal policies to protect us from toxic chemicals. A registered nurse, Charlotte previously served as the Director of Programs for Green For All, Executive Director of Commonweal, and a co-founder and Executive Director of Health Care Without Harm.
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Noedahn Copley-Woods
Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians/Assistant Professor at the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Medicine
Noe C. Woods, MD is an Assistant Professor of ObGyn at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She is a board certified practicing gynecologist specializing in treatment of gynecologic disorders.
She attended Cornell University as a Traditions Scholar, received the ObGyn Scholars Award from Temple University School of Medicine and the Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism in Medicine Award from the University of Vermont.
After completing her training, she practiced medicine on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Chinle Arizona before coming to Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC where she is actively involved in greening healthcare.
Her environmental interests include surgical waste production, environmental life cycle analysis of surgery and the environmental impact of the practice of medicine.
She is a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology, the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists and the National American Menopause Society.
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Kathy Gerwig
Vice President, Workplace Safety and Environmental Stewardship Officer, Kaiser Permanente
Kathy Gerwig is Vice President, Workplace Safety and Environmental Stewardship Officer for Kaiser Permanente, one of America’s leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans serving almost nine million members. Kathy is responsible for developing, organizing and managing a nationwide environmental initiative for the organization. Under her leadership, Kaiser Permanente has become widely recognized as an environmental leader in the health care sector. Kathy has testified twice to Congress on the need for federal chemical policy reform, and she has appeared at numerous hearings on environmental and safety issues. Kathy is also Kaiser Permanente’s national leader for Workplace Safety, responsible for strengthening efforts to eliminate workplace injuries for the organization’s 164,000 employees and 15,000 physicians. She is on the boards of several leading non-governmental organizations focused on safety and environmental sustainability in health care.
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Bruno Giacomuzzi (Treasurer)
Vice President Professional Services, Resurrection Medical Center
Based in Chicago Illinois, Bruno Giacomuzzi is the Vice President of Professional Services for Resurrection Medical Center, a state-of-the-art 360 bed acute care community hospital located on the Northwest Side of Chicago. Resurrection Medical Center is part of Resurrection Healthcare, a 6 hospital system with over 100 sites of care throughout the Chicago land area’
An executive with a multi-faceted background, Bruno directs the Medical Observation Unit, the Wound Care Center, Cardiac Catherization Labs, Neurointerventional Services, Radiology/Imaging Services, Electrophysiology, Cardiology, Pharmacy and Respiratory Services. His background allows him to also direct support services some of which include Environmental Services, Food Services, Security, Facilities Management and Construction services for Resurrection Medical Center.
Bruno is a graduate of DePaul University in Chicago with a BA in Psychology and a graduate of St. Xavier University with a Masters Degree in Public Health.
Bruno is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), a member of the American Society of Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) and a Charter member of the Association for the Healthcare Environment (AHE). He is also a Board member and Chair of The Finance Committee for Practice Greenhealth (PGH) and Health Care Without Harm (HCWH), two national and international organizations “dedicated to leading the global movement for environmentally responsible healthcare”.
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Jeffrey Hollender
Entrepreneur
Jeffrey Hollender is a leading authority on social entrepreneurship, corporate responsibility, sustainability and social equity. More than twenty-three years ago, he co-founded Seventh Generation and went on to build the company into a $150 million natural product brand known for its authenticity, transparency, and progressive business practices. Jeffrey's passion for changing the negative impact that industry has on the environment and society is evident in each of his seven books, including 2010's The Responsibility Revolution: How the Next Generation of Businesses Will Win.
Jeffrey’s first business ventures were in the fields of banking, education and publishing: he was a co-founder of Brooklyn’s Community Capital Bank, and the founder of the Skills Exchange in Toronto and Network for Learning in New York City. He sold Network for Learning to Warner Publishing, a division of Warner Communications in 1985. Jeffrey is on the boards of Greenpeace US; the Environmental Health Fund; and Verité, a leading workers’ rights organization. He is co-founder and Board Chair of the American Sustainable Business Council, a coalition of 110,000 business leaders committed to changing the rules of business.
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John W. Strong
Principal, John Strong, LLC
John Strong is Principal of John Strong, LLC a healthcare consultancy specializing in working with manufacturers and distributors on national accounts contracting projects as well as Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs) and Healthcare Organizations. John retired in early 2011 as Senior Vice President of Management Services at Nexera, Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of Greater New York Hospital Association Ventures. This Division provides outsourced supply chain services to healthcare providers.
With more than 35 years of healthcare experience, John has an extensive background in supply chain management. John was founding President and CEO of Consorta, Inc. a leading healthcare GPO owned by 12 of the nation’s leading healthcare systems for more than ten years. Prior to Consorta, John was Senior Vice President at Concepts In Healthcare, an Ashland, MA, consulting firm. Previously he was Chief Operating Officer of Premier Purchasing Partners, LLC. John combines this industry experience with more than 15 years of hospital administration and supply chain management experience at hospitals in the Midwest.
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Sister Susan Vickers (Chair)
Vice President Community Health, Catholic Healthcare West
Sister Susan Vickers is the Vice President of Community Health for Catholic Healthcare West (CHW). She is responsible for directing and overseeing systemwide community benefit initiatives, corporate social responsibility and ecology programs.
In conjunction with her community health work, Susan directs CHW’s shareholder initiatives. She collaborates with other members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) to raise social responsibility issues with the management of companies in CHW’s investment portfolio. Susan took a leadership role in developing CHW’s systemwide commitment to improved environmental performance and in the decision-making process which led CHW to endorse the Ceres Principles for environmental protection and conservation.
Susan currently serves as board member of Practice Greenhealth, Healthier Hospitals Initiative, Partners for the Common Good Loan Fund, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, and St. Mary Medical Center Foundation.
Prior to joining Catholic Healthcare West, Susan served on the Leadership Team of the Sisters of Mercy - Regional Community of Burlingame, California. She has worked as pastoral minister/administrative assistant in assisted rental housing for elderly and handicapped persons and spent twenty years in teaching and administering elementary schools.
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Alan R. Yuspeh
Senior Vice President and Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer, HCA
Alan Yuspeh is Senior Vice President and Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer for HCA Holdings, Inc. (Hospital Corporation of America). In this position, Mr. Yuspeh is responsible for HCA’s Ethics and Compliance and Government Programs Departments. Mr. Yuspeh is also Chairman of HCA’s Sustainability Steering Committee. Mr. Yuspeh is well known in the field of business ethics and compliance. From 1987 to 1997, he served as Coordinator (Executive Director) of the Defense Industry Initiative on Business Ethics and Conduct (DII). Mr. Yuspeh served in 2004 as the National President of the Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA), the professional association of health care compliance professionals. He was selected by HCCA as the Health Care Compliance Professional of the Year in 1999. He has also served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Ethics Officer Association (EOA).
Mr. Yuspeh's career prior to joining HCA was based in Washington, DC for 24 years. For 15 years of that time, he was in private law practice, as a partner and associate with several large law firms. Mr. Yuspeh served as General Counsel to the Committee on Armed Services of the United States Senate from 1982 to 1985. He also served as a member of the staff of United States Senator J. Bennett Johnston of Louisiana from 1974 to 1978. He was Administrative Assistant, or chief-of-staff, and Legislative Assistant. He began his career as a management consultant in the Washington, DC office of McKinsey & Company.
Mr. Yuspeh has been active in civic affairs in Nashville. He is a member of the boards of the Nashville Public Library Foundation, the Urban League of Middle Tennessee, the Nashville Alliance for Public Education, and the Nashville Opera. He chairs the Board of Directors of the Center for Business Ethics at Belmont University and the Community Advisory Board of the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health. He is a member of the Advisory Board of Montgomery Bell Academy. Mr. Yuspeh served on a Citizens Advisory Committee on Ethics, created by Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen. He was a participant in the 2003-2004 class of Leadership Nashville.
Mr. Yuspeh received his Bachelor's degree at Yale University magna cum laude with honors in political science and economics. He received a Master in Business Administration (MBA) degree with distinction from Harvard Business School. His law degree is from Georgetown University, where he was an editor of Law and Policy in International Business, the school's journal of international law.
